Check that. He feels good about the possibility of playing some good golf soon. Or at least hitting it solidly. And perhaps “soon” is a bit too strong.

The point is, despite enough negative reinforcement to make a normal person clinically despondent, the 41-year-old Masters champion of nine long years ago is looking forward to another week at the scene of his greatest triumph.

There is no trace of defeatism of the sort you might expect from a guy who has had 11 top-10s in major championships, but who this season is 40-over-par for eight rounds on the PGA Tour, missing all four cuts, and has made only one cheque all year, for 3,438 euro, tying for 52nd at the Open de Andalucia.

“It’s tough. It challenges you mentally when you’re struggling and working hard and not seeing results,” the 2003 Masters champ said Monday, to a gathering of Canadian media people under the big oak tree outside the Augusta National Golf Club’s stately old clubhouse.

“I had a good talk with Jack (Nicklaus) about that at the Honda (Classic). He said, ‘Look, I was at the bottom, about as bad as I could play. So whatever good shots you hit on the course, try to burn them into your memory and forget about the bad ones.’

“The game can test you, but there have been plenty of guys who have come back from that. There have been plenty who haven’t, either. I think the way you come back is by having a great attitude and kind of laugh it off sometimes. Take the good things you are doing — my short game’s still been great. If I can get the ball-striking to come around, now that I’m past the injury, and I can practice more ...”

It’s a big if, but not as big as it was after he hurt his elbow last spring at Hilton Head, hitting a tree root the week after the Masters.

“I’m trying to get back to a comfort level over the ball, getting my setup comfortable,” he said. “I got into a lot of bad habits because of my arm. My right shoulder got high, because I was favouring (the elbow).

“Now I can go down into the ground again, so a lot of familiar feels are coming back.”

He has no pain in the elbow, only some stiffness in his forearm.

There has been little enough good news in the Weir family for a while now. His elbow surgery, shortly after withdrawing from last summer’s RBC Canadian Open in Vancouver, kept him inactive for months, and then his wife Bricia was thrown from a horse last November and suffered a compound fracture of the ankle. Five months later, he said, “she’s almost back on her feet.”

His game? Not according to the scorecard.

The Masters always makes former champions hopeful, though, whatever the state of their ball-striking coming in.

“You have a good game plan for the golf course and remember a lot of shots,” he said. “This is a memorable golf course, all the holes and all the shots you’ve hit on them.”

Lately, he has had trouble finding the short grass with his driver, and this is a golf course that rewards good driving.

“It’s been the biggest struggle getting back. The longer the club the more of a struggle it’s been,” he admitted.

But he has stayed mentally committed to improving, even with little to be positive about.

“(The game) is not where I want it to be,” he said. “But I’m gaining on it.”

Vancouver Sun

ccole@vancouversun.com

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